Abel- A young man who understands,loves, and cares very much for Rima
Rima- the last of a race of an exotic, mystical, bird-like people
Nuflo- Rimas grandfather
Cla-Cla- A very old and motherly Indian who Abel is fond of. She tells the most amazing stories.
Kua-Ko- They chief of the Indian tribe Abel lives with who becomes a good friend but in the end are more like enemys
Summary
Green Mansions is an exotic romance novel written by William Henry Hudson in 1904. A young man named Abel leaves the city he was living in to explore the Guyana Jungle in Venezuela. While in the jungle he gets a terriable sickness and is taken in by a group of Indians that were living near by. . Abel dicides that he really likes the life of the Indians and is going to end is adventure in the jungle and stay here to live with them. While exploring one day he finds a mystical forest filled with the most beautiful noises he has ever heard. They sounded very bird-like but also very human-like. After returnig from the forest he tells an indian friend Kua-Ko, about his day. Kua-Ko is horrified that Abel went in the forest. He explains to Abel that of the evil spirit-protector, "the Daughter of the Didi," lives in the forest and he should never return. Abel returns the next tday to the forest and follows the mysterious noises. They where coming from a beautiful girl with dark hair and clothes silky. The color of her skin seemed almost translusent. Her name is Rima and she is a bird girl. She communicates with the animals in the forest. Abel is so amazed with her beauty that he wasnt paying attention and got bitten by a poisenous snake. By then it was getting dark and Rima had disappeared. Abel fells his way through the jungle, the poisen working through his blood with each second and soon he falls unconscious. When he wakes up he finds himnself in a cave. The home of the bird girl, Rima and her grandfather Nuflo. Nuflo heals Abel and as soon as he was recovered he went back to the woods wehere he met Rima. Rima and Abel explore together through the woods, although she can speak little of his language and mostly speaks in her bird-like calls. Abel is amazed by Rima. How her skin changes color with her feelings and how she can seem to disappear but it always seems like shes there. Soon Abel falls in love and wants to know more about RIma the bird girl. He takes a few days to visit his Indian friends who hasnt seen in weeks, but once he goes back the Indains, his friends, are not as friendly to him. They seem to suspect he has been in the woods too long and might have been in contact with the daughter of the Didi. Feeling rejected from his friends he returns to the woods to find Rima. She asks hem about the world and so he tells her everything he knows about it. Rima decides she wants to travel the world, but first she wants to go to Riolama, the country where she was born and where her mother died, in hope of finding more people like her, people who understand her. So Nuflo, Rima, and Abel travel to Riolama. On there journey Nuflo tells of Rima's history. Seventeen years ago in Riolama, Nuflo abanded his villiage in hope of finding a better life. He traveled up the Ytaiao Mountain and saw a woman, beautiful and covered in the same kind of silky clothing Rima wears, he followed her. She treid to run away from him but stepped in a small hole that broke her ankle. Nuflo helped her out and took her to a nearby cave. He cared and nurtured her until she was better, but her ankle haveing been crushed by her fall in the woods, would never get better. A few weeks after Nuflo found her she gave birth to a daughter who she named Rima. The mother and daughter spent seven years conversing in the mystical bird-like language , which only they could understand. Rima, haveing been around Nuflo her entire life, could also speak his language and would she would sometimes translate for her mother and Nuflo. Soon the mother fell sick and as her last dying wish told Nuflo, as Rima translated, that he had to take care of Rima and bring her to a less humid part of the country. So Nuflo and Rima went to the drier mountains. On the way they tried to stay with some Indians, but the Indains did not like Rima. They found her strange and scary, they tried to kill to her numerous times so Nuflo and Rima went and lived alone, far away from the Indians. Abel now relized that there was no hope in finding more wonderful creatures like Rima, she was the last one to exist. Once they got to the exact spot where Rimas mothr died Abel and Rima were left alone while Nuflo went to the caves to make a fire. Abel tells Rima the sad and depressing news, she is the last one of her kind. The bird-like people were very peaceful and never hurt a thing and once the Indians came to thier land it wasnt hard to take over. The Indians must have killed Rimas kind except for a rare few like her mother and the rest didnt survive. Rima was very saddened by this and passed out in Abels arms. The color from her skin drained so he took her to the cave and held her until she was revived, the color came back in her skin and she came back almost as a new person. she was very open and finds she loves Abel just as much as he loves her. She doesnt need her own kind to understand her because Abel understood her the entire time. They dicide to go back to their home away from Riolama. Rima set out to go home a few days before Abel and Nuflo, but when Abel and Nuflo started back on their journey home it was very stromy so they were delayed about four days. Once Abel and Nuflo returned home they found thier house burned down and Rima to be nowhere in sight. They set out separate ways to look for her, but Abel was spotted by his old Indin friends and was taken hostage. The Indians dont trust Abel, they think he is friends with theri enemy and will hurt them in the night. Abel promises he is on their side but they still don't trust him. Abel asks why they arnt afraid to go in the woods anymore and Kua-Ko told them there were no more evil spirits, the daghter of Didi was gone. Kua-Ko explains that because Abel went in the woods so much and never got hurt, then they could too. So one day while the indains were in the woods they caught Rima and chased her up a tree. They took brush and made a big fire around the tree burning it to the ground, with Rima in it. In rage Abel kill Kua-ko and runs to the enemy villige. He tells them what has happened and the enemy villiage goes and kills all of Abels old friends. Days later Abel returns to the spot where Rima died. It was also the spot where they met. He takes a pot and collects Rimas ashes. He leaves the Guyana jungle and makes his way home to Caracas, the country he lived in before his adventure to the jungle, with the help of Indians and Christians along the way. Many years later Abel is now healthy and dealing with the stress of all that has happened to him. He knows that knowone can ever forgive him of what he did, but know that Rima being so loveing and gently would forgive him. Now Abel just waits until he dies so he can be buried with Rimas ashesand they can be together forever, like it was meant to be.
"she came forth, and seeing me in the way, would have slipped into hiding: for, in spite of her boldness on the previous day, she now seemed shyer than ever when I spoke to her."
Green Mansions
by: William Henry HudsonMain Characters
Summary
Green Mansions is an exotic romance novel written by William Henry Hudson in 1904. A young man named Abel leaves the city he was living in to explore the Guyana Jungle in Venezuela. While in the jungle he gets a terriable sickness and is taken in by a group of Indians that were living near by. . Abel dicides that he really likes the life of the Indians and is going to end is adventure in the jungle and stay here to live with them. While exploring one day he finds a mystical forest filled with the most beautiful noises he has ever heard. They sounded very bird-like but also very human-like. After returnig from the forest he tells an indian friend Kua-Ko, about his day. Kua-Ko is horrified that Abel went in the forest. He explains to Abel that of the evil spirit-protector, "the Daughter of the Didi," lives in the forest and he should never return. Abel returns the next tday to the forest and follows the mysterious noises. They where coming from a beautiful girl with dark hair and clothes silky. The color of her skin seemed almost translusent. Her name is Rima and she is a bird girl. She communicates with the animals in the forest. Abel is so amazed with her beauty that he wasnt paying attention and got bitten by a poisenous snake. By then it was getting dark and Rima had disappeared. Abel fells his way through the jungle, the poisen working through his blood with each second and soon he falls unconscious. When he wakes up he finds himnself in a cave. The home of the bird girl, Rima and her grandfather Nuflo. Nuflo heals Abel and as soon as he was recovered he went back to the woods wehere he met Rima. Rima and Abel explore together through the woods, although she can speak little of his language and mostly speaks in her bird-like calls. Abel is amazed by Rima. How her skin changes color with her feelings and how she can seem to disappear but it always seems like shes there. Soon Abel falls in love and wants to know more about RIma the bird girl. He takes a few days to visit his Indian friends who hasnt seen in weeks, but once he goes back the Indains, his friends, are not as friendly to him. They seem to suspect he has been in the woods too long and might have been in contact with the daughter of the Didi. Feeling rejected from his friends he returns to the woods to find Rima. She asks hem about the world and so he tells her everything he knows about it. Rima decides she wants to travel the world, but first she wants to go to Riolama, the country where she was born and where her mother died, in hope of finding more people like her, people who understand her. So Nuflo, Rima, and Abel travel to Riolama. On there journey Nuflo tells of Rima's history. Seventeen years ago in Riolama, Nuflo abanded his villiage in hope of finding a better life. He traveled up the Ytaiao Mountain and saw a woman, beautiful and covered in the same kind of silky clothing Rima wears, he followed her. She treid to run away from him but stepped in a small hole that broke her ankle. Nuflo helped her out and took her to a nearby cave. He cared and nurtured her until she was better, but her ankle haveing been crushed by her fall in the woods, would never get better. A few weeks after Nuflo found her she gave birth to a daughter who she named Rima. The mother and daughter spent seven years conversing in the mystical bird-like language , which only they could understand. Rima, haveing been around Nuflo her entire life, could also speak his language and would she would sometimes translate for her mother and Nuflo. Soon the mother fell sick and as her last dying wish told Nuflo, as Rima translated, that he had to take care of Rima and bring her to a less humid part of the country. So Nuflo and Rima went to the drier mountains. On the way they tried to stay with some Indians, but the Indains did not like Rima. They found her strange and scary, they tried to kill to her numerous times so Nuflo and Rima went and lived alone, far away from the Indians. Abel now relized that there was no hope in finding more wonderful creatures like Rima, she was the last one to exist. Once they got to the exact spot where Rimas mothr died Abel and Rima were left alone while Nuflo went to the caves to make a fire. Abel tells Rima the sad and depressing news, she is the last one of her kind. The bird-like people were very peaceful and never hurt a thing and once the Indians came to thier land it wasnt hard to take over. The Indians must have killed Rimas kind except for a rare few like her mother and the rest didnt survive. Rima was very saddened by this and passed out in Abels arms. The color from her skin drained so he took her to the cave and held her until she was revived, the color came back in her skin and she came back almost as a new person. she was very open and finds she loves Abel just as much as he loves her. She doesnt need her own kind to understand her because Abel understood her the entire time. They dicide to go back to their home away from Riolama. Rima set out to go home a few days before Abel and Nuflo, but when Abel and Nuflo started back on their journey home it was very stromy so they were delayed about four days. Once Abel and Nuflo returned home they found thier house burned down and Rima to be nowhere in sight. They set out separate ways to look for her, but Abel was spotted by his old Indin friends and was taken hostage. The Indians dont trust Abel, they think he is friends with theri enemy and will hurt them in the night. Abel promises he is on their side but they still don't trust him. Abel asks why they arnt afraid to go in the woods anymore and Kua-Ko told them there were no more evil spirits, the daghter of Didi was gone. Kua-Ko explains that because Abel went in the woods so much and never got hurt, then they could too. So one day while the indains were in the woods they caught Rima and chased her up a tree. They took brush and made a big fire around the tree burning it to the ground, with Rima in it. In rage Abel kill Kua-ko and runs to the enemy villige. He tells them what has happened and the enemy villiage goes and kills all of Abels old friends. Days later Abel returns to the spot where Rima died. It was also the spot where they met. He takes a pot and collects Rimas ashes. He leaves the Guyana jungle and makes his way home to Caracas, the country he lived in before his adventure to the jungle, with the help of Indians and Christians along the way. Many years later Abel is now healthy and dealing with the stress of all that has happened to him. He knows that knowone can ever forgive him of what he did, but know that Rima being so loveing and gently would forgive him. Now Abel just waits until he dies so he can be buried with Rimas ashesand they can be together forever, like it was meant to be.
Works cited
Hudson, Whilliam H.Green Mansions.New York:Cornwall,1949
W. H. Hudsons Green Mansions.http://orage.mjp.brown.edu/mjp/images/Henderson/GMfrontis.JPG
Green Mansions. Charles Flarsen 2007. < http://www.charlesflarsen.com/gallery.html >
Powells books.1994-2007. <http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/imageDB.cgi?isbn=9780486259932>